A geek doing woodwork…

I haven’t built anything out of wood since I was young, (think bird house) so the thought of building a dining table seemed like a bit of a stretch. But I figured it was a good challenge, and since my friends had already built their own, I thought I might as well try!

I think my least favorite part about the process was choosing the wood. But luckily my friends had already done this before, so they were a HUGE help with this part.

Least favorite part: picking out the wood!

We got the plans from DIY Pete and Ana White, and definitely wouldn’t have been able to pull this off without their help!

I spent the first day doing nothing but cutting all the wood using a friend of a friend’s miter saw. This allowed me to get all the angles perfect.

The second day my friends and I put all the pieces together to build the frame.

On to the tabletop. I got lucky with the pieces of wood we chose, so they actually fit together really well on my first try of laying it all out. The breadboards on the ends won’t be cut to size until all the main boards are screwed together with pocket holes from the Kreg jig.

Sand away! Started with 80 grit, then moved up to 120, then 220.

I pre-stained the tabletop and then did a coat of dark walnut stain on that and the base. I actually forgot to wipe off the excess with a rag, so it ended up being a little darker and with less contrast, but still turned out ok. Then I did 2 coats of semi-gloss polyurethane.

I wasn’t able to get a great final picture of it with the lighting, but I’m really happy with how the table turned out! So cool seeing a pile of wood turn into something that friends and family can share a meal at! It’s a great feeling.